Naoomal Jeoomal Makhija (17 April 1904 – 28 July 1980) was an Indian cricketer, who was
India's first opening
batsman
In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...
in
Test cricket
Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last f ...
.
Naoomal Jeoomal scored 33 and 25 opening India's innings in their
first ever Test at
Lord's in 1932. He also shared stands of 39 and 41 with his opening partner
Janardan Navle in the two innings. Naoomal was a diminutive, defensive batsman whose strong point was the
cut
Cut may refer to:
Common uses
* The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force
** A type of wound
** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past
** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment
** Cut (ea ...
. He made 1,297 runs in the tour, playing in all the 26 first class matches, a decent performance considering that he had played only on matting wickets till then.
Wisden
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
even commented on Jeoomal's fielding abilities.
When
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
returned the visit in 1933–34, Jeoomal missed the first Test. He scored 2 and 43 at
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, but in
Madras, he was hit on the face by
Nobby Clark. The ball left a half-inch cut across the left eye. The injury ended his innings and he did not play another Test. In his first match in the
Ranji Trophy, for
Sind
Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...
against Western India in 1934–35, he scored 63 and 53, despite being hit by
Amar Singh and
Ladha Ramji, and took 5/78 and 3/52 in bowling. He played in the Sind Pentangular matches from 1922 till 1946, scoring 1,993 runs (average 47) with six hundreds.
His highest score in first-class cricket was a 203* scored in four and a half hours for Sind against
Nawanagar in 1938–39. The Sind total of 326 was at the time the second lowest completed first class innings to include a double hundred.
He coached
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
in the late 1950s and became national selector from 1957. He moved to India in 1971.
Jeoomal was the oldest Indian Test cricketer to attend the Golden Jubilee Test in 1980, which marked the fiftieth year of the founding of
BCCI. The oldest living cricketer
Cota Ramaswami was absent.
Note : Jeoomal's obituaries in
Wisden Almanack
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
and
Wisden Cricket Monthly
''Wisden Cricket Monthly'' (WCM) is a UK-based print and digital cricket magazine available to buy worldwide.
The original version ran from June 1979 to September 2003. The magazine was revived in November 2017, launching with an Ashes Special whi ...
both give his date of death as 18 July.
Early life
He was born on April 17, 1904, in
Karachi
Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...
,
Sindh.
He was the son of head clerk of a private company. He was a matriculation. He made his First-Class debut against Arthur Gilligan's MCC in 1926-27 for Hindus and The Rest at Karachi, scoring 16.
References
*
Indian Cricket 1980 obituary
* Christopher Martin-Jenkins, ''The Complete Who's Who of Test Cricketers''
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeoomal, Naoomal
India Test cricketers
Indian cricketers
1904 births
1980 deaths
Northern India cricketers
Hindus cricketers
Sindh cricketers
Maharashtra cricketers
Karachi cricketers
Sindhi people
Cricketers from Karachi
Cricketers from Mumbai